Landscape Design Over Time And Place

Capability Brown was an Englishman whose name has become synonymous with landscape design in English culture. He worked for wealthy patrons when money was flooding into the country from activities such as slave trading and colonial agriculture. He worked on a grand scale and many of his works that surround stately houses remain to this day, maintained by people who are happy to work within the framework that he created.

People who create beautiful places are often inspired by emotions that represent the more admirable aspects of human nature. The love of beauty was said to have inspired the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They were built for a queen who was loved by her husband, the king.

On marriage she had been forced to move far from her mountainous homeland where she had been happy as a child. The king had gardens designed for her that would feature a mountainous environment, with terraces and splashing water and plants that cascaded down. The compassion and sympathy that motivated the gardens are an interesting reflection on some of the higher emotions that can inspire people.

The wonderfully landscaped gardens around the Chinese Imperial palace in Beijing seem to have been an expression of human response to unlimited time and resources. With little to do successive emperors and empresses devoted themselves to beautifying their surrounds on a grand scale. They had the advantage of being able to command experts to do their bidding and there seem to have been a lot of people on hand.

A great scenic lake was dug out of the earth near the palace and the soil was placed adjacent to form an artificial mountain. A forest was planted on the mountain and little houses and gazebos erected on it with pathways connecting them. So the emperors and emperors, imprisoned in the palace grounds, could enjoy a lake and a mountain as they would in the wider environment.

Grand English gardens seem to reflect a certain tension between owner and designer rather than the outright expression of a ruler. Brown was probably given the nickname 'Capability' by people who considered themselves above work and lacked the capability to do much other than employ someone who could do better than they. He created aesthetic effects using natural elements such as water, woods and contours. They inserted ostentatious features such as pseudo Grecian ruins and Roman pillars.

In contemporary times the gap between rich and poor is as great as ever but in general autocrats, dictators and monarchs are gradually being eliminated from the political landscape of the world. In their place are committees and corporate groups who are likely to appoint professional groups to improve corporate or public places.

Although it is better for privileges to be shared fairly there is something about a public place that is less exciting or romantic than a place that has history behind it. Steel exercise equipment, upright city shrubs and lakes embraced by concrete will always be less charming than a private place with a history and stories to tell, even if they are about exploitation and misery. The challenge for landscape design is to breathe character into projects that are merely commendable.


Landscape Design Across Time And The World

People who have English as their mother tongue can be subject to arrogance. The phrase 'landscape design' may waken in them thoughts of English gardens and the work of Capability Brown. He was a famous eighteen century landscape who probably left a greater heritage to English people than most of his now forgotten patrons . His gardens are enjoyed by thousands of people and his work is taken as model even by those who have to work on a much smaller scale.

However the desire to beautify surrounds where people live or work did not start in Britain. Long before the eighteenth century the Hanging gardens of Babylon were inspired by a man's love and his desire to create a beautiful place. Such emotions have added character and spirit to many designs that reflect the better aspects of humanity.

A queen who had to live far from her mountainous home country pined for the sensations of fresh air and scents that she had known as a child. Her king, in a magnificent effort to change the environment for the sake of love and beauty created what she yearned for.

Long before the eighteenth century landscaping was being practiced in China on a grand scale. The Forbidden City in Beijing was a curious place. Those within were not allowed out and those without were not allowed in, with some exceptions. Cloistered monarchs, kept within confines with power and resources at their command devote much of their energy to beautifying their surrounds.

One magnificent effort involved developing a large artificial lake. This was dug out by hand and the earth used to create an artificial mountain adjacent to the lake. It was covered in a forest and had buildings peeping through the trees. So the monarch who were confined to the palace grounds constructed a replica of the wider countryside that they could not travel through.

The estates that surround stately homes in England also reflect some things about their owners and the designer. Capability Brown also had a small army of laborers but h grasp of aesthetics and design is evident in perspectives and vistas that he created using trees, water and contours. The mock classical features insisted upon by owners with more taste for ostentation than aesthetics seem to counter the natural effects.

In olden times ordinary people probably did not have the luxury of elegantly designed surrounds. Instead they enjoyed the homely satisfaction of living in places that were familiar to them. In the twenty-first century the authority behind a project is more likely to be a state body or corporate group which employs professional architects.

In some countries the poor are left to live in ugly squalor and in others efforts are made to improve public environs. In some countries artificial lakes are made with concrete surrounds and steel installations of physical exercise equipment, string enough to survive almost all human efforts to break them. Trees and shrubs may be strategically planted and even beds of flowers may be planted and refreshed periodically. Commendable though such efforts are they often seem to lack the artistry and history of ancient landscape design that was executed at the hands of slave labor.


Various Ideas Behind Landscape Design

English speaking people are inclined to think that landscape design began with Capability Brown. He was an eighteenth century expert who worked for many powerful and wealthy patrons. Putting aside the likelihood that many of the funds for Brown's designs probably emanated from slaving, it is possible for English people to enjoy the beauty, grace and elegance of his gardens to this day. Many people emulate his ideas on a small scale in their own English gardens.

However, landscaping did not begin with Brown. Long before his time there were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in what is now Iran. Like many other such creations these splendid gardens were said to have originated in the desire for love and beauty.

A ruler had them constructed to please his wife who longed for the misty damp mountains of her girlhood. So terraces, water and plants that draped themselves over artificial cliffs were important elements in the gardens made to soothe an ache heart.

Long before Brown, Chinese emperors and empresses were engaged in beautifying their surrounds. The Forbidden City in Beijing was in some ways like a glorified prison. The people within it were not allowed out and those outside were not allowed in. In this strangely illogical set up one or two people had time, power and resources to order others to create wonderful environs for the immediate pleasure of the privileged few.

Thousands labored with wicker baskets to remove earth and form a large ornamental lake. Adjacent to it is an artificial mountain, complete with gazebos, wandering paved pathways and a pine forest with romantic roof tops peeping through of trees. The aims were to create an ambiance of tranquility and harmony, in keeping with intellectual and philosophical ideas.

Intellectual notions were also behind many eighteenth century British gardens. Capability Brown may have striven for aesthetic effects by using declivities to hide fences and framing vistas with planted forests but many of his patrons had other ideas. After being educated in the classics they wished to include things that looked like Grecian ruins and Roman pillars as symbols of their classical background.

Silly ostentation and unearned privileges are hopefully less common in more enlightened times. Tastes may be more environmentally sensitive. Unlike the Duke of Buckingham, who arbitrarily had an unsightly village removed so that Queen Victoria would not have to see it when she visited his estate, a modern patron is more likely to be a state authority such as the parks and gardens division of a municipal authority. Landscapers will work within professional parameters and be accountable to public approval.

This is a much more sensible and preferable situation. However, landscape design, needs to avoid being utilitarian and functional it may be may look back with some regret at the times when excess and privilege ran riot. A politically inspired space with its abundance of steel, glass and cement, functional exercise equipment and shrubs standing to attention does not have quite the same romance as the artificial mountain in Beijing, created for the pleasure of concubines by the blood and sweat of forced labor.



